A beloved 60-year-old Bronx handyman was killed and his daughter injured when fire broke out in their illegal cellar apartment early today, authorities and neighbors said.

The smoky blaze nearly trapped eight others — including an autistic boy, one of five children — on the top floor of the three-story structure, but their mom helped pass them from their balcony to the adjoining one to save them.

“The house is on fire!’’ the mom, Thomasine Riddles, said she yelled to her kids, a niece and a friend’s daughter who were in the apartment at the time.

Riddles said she struggled to get her 9-year-old dressed before getting him onto the deck and escaping.

“He doesn’t like to wear clothes,” she said.

The dead man was identified as Algie “Junior” Allen, an animal lover who lived in the cellar of 1120 E. 225th St., with his 27-year-old daughter, Tanisha.

“He was a good man, a sweet man,” Riddles said. “Everyone on the block loved that man.”

Tanisha Allen was in stable conditionat Jacobi Hospital with smoke inhalation. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries in the fire.

Sources said there was no criminality in the fire, which started around 5:15 a.m. But Allen, who fed animals and took out garbage for his neighbors, should never have been living in the illegally carved-up apartment, a Buildings Department spokesman said.

“Our inspectors have determined that the cellar was illegally divided into three bedrooms,” said spokesman Tony Sclafani. “We are in the process of issuing violations to the property owner, and a vacate order has been issued.”

It took firefighters about 90 minutes to bring the blaze under control.

The building’s owner — identified in city records as Armando Avila and Avila Almando — had been issued violations in 2004 for illegal conversions to the basement apartment where Allen died.

Records show Armando Avila paid $850 in fines, but the violations remained open because he never submitted proof to the city that the building was in compliance. He could not be reached for comment.

“Junior wasn’t supposed to be living in a basement with no windows.,” Riddles said. “Nobody was supposed to be living down there.”

Four families lived in the building and three were being sheltered by the Red Cross, said Nancy Soto, a Red Cross spokeswoman.